Sarah Cunningham

A post-university stint teaching English in Greece in 1982 motivated me to do my CELTA before going on to teach at IH San Sebastian and London. I did the DELTA in 1986, where Liz Soars was my course tutor, just as the first Headway was being published. After going off to become director of studies at IH Budapest, Liz and John suggested me and course-mate Bill Bowler as authors for Headway Pronunciation – so my writing career began with a some very good luck!

Back at IH London, working as a teacher trainer I met (and married) Peter Moor. After writing several more Headway supplementary books together, and a stint in Buenos Aires running a DELTA, we somehow felt inspired to branch out on our own in coursebook writing, leading eventually to the publication of Cutting Edge in 1998. Since then, together with a number of great co-authors, we have written three editions, as well as an upper secondary course called Real Life. That, along with three children, has kept me pretty busy until now.

Working with John and Liz at the beginning, and then so closely over the years with Pete, our co-authors and so many great publishers and editors - and with huge amounts of trial and error along the way - I have had the opportunity to learn about materials writing and publishing from many different perspectives. I am really looking forward to working with ELT Teachers2writers, where I hope I can share my experiences.

ELT Teacher 2 Writer have combined six key titles from their ELT writer training series to create a complete course in writing four skills material: reading, listening, speaking and writing. It also includes chapters on how to write vocabulary activities, critical thinking activities, and audio and video scripts. The contributing authors are all experts in their field, and have written international best-selling ELT courses.

Learners of English are often reluctant to open their mouths and speak, and in turn, teachers around the world worry about trying out speaking activities in their class in case they grind to a halt. Who better then than Sarah Cunningham, co-author of CuttingEdge, to share her experience of writing speaking activities in this eBook. Sarah focuses on setting the students up to succeed.